Are you ridin' or are you hiding- BDB

[Hub]

:)
Big Dam Bridge 100

Sept 29, 2007


Distances offered:

12, 25, 50, 75, 100 Miles
Start: North Broadway and 5th st N. Little Rock AR

Finish: Main Street and 5th North Little Rock - Trolley rails to be covered

[Aggie_Ama]

Hub- We are getting to ride. :) Wasn't sure after the wreck last week that we could make the trip but it all worked out. DH and I will be doing the century. I may wear my Amici Veloci Jersey or a Texas A&M Ol' Army Cycling, not sure since it will be cold when we start and warm later. Say hi if you see us and have a great ride!

[Tuckervill]

It's going to be about 60 in the morning. I'm not wearing anything extra. It will warm up quick.

I'll be wearing my AV socks! Also, look for a bright green and yellow vintage John Deere bike. That will be my son. We will probably be separated at some point so I may not be with him.

Karen

[Aggie_Ama]

Even though I feel like I have some extra layers of warmth on my frame (hehe) I still get cold easily. Must be thin-blooded Texan in me. I will be wearing stuff I can peel off like arm warmers and knee warmers. 60's is cold for me, I am a wimp!

[AgilityAddict]

Hi! I haven't posted before but have been lurking for a couple of months. Love this web site - it's been very helpful.

I'm getting excited about BDB - it's my first "cycling event" ! I'm a little nervous about the start - so many bikes - so little space!! Hope I don't crash before I get started!!

I'm doing 50 miles. Good luck to all of you.

Beth

[Hub]

Cool Beans y'all

I'm looking forward to riding with y'all, my brother (PsyclePath) one of my work study kids (Woodstock) and about 1599 more folks!.

I have to leave my house a 3am to get there- but that will be OK !!

I plan to wear my BDB jersey fropm last year, (or my Pink Discovery)-
I'll be riding Old BLue (the postal blue 5200 & wearing my postal blue Lance helmet-

My bootie tag is # 1076----- he's 777 (how cool)

woo hooo!!!

[Tuckervill]

Wait, you already have your bib number?

I guess I better go check the website. Been meaning to, any way.

Karen

[Tuckervill]

Oh, you must have picked up your packet already--I won't be able to get mine until this evening.

Karen

[PscyclePath]

Wait, you already have your bib number?

I guess I better go check the website. Been meaning to, any way.


Several of us rode down from Cook's Landing to the ballfield last nite and picked up our packets. Unlike HHH, you don't get a number assigned until you sign in. They didn't seem to be in any order, just whatever pile of numbers the volunteers had in front of them.

Yesterday was Hub's birthday (She's 44) , and since in my current bikin' fool state of mind I didn't even get anywhere to get a birthday card, I'd better at least come up with a present of some sort, and wanted to hot-foot it down there before they ran out of the new jerseys.

Tonight (6 to 8 p.m.) is the pre-ride carbo-loading spaghetti supper & local bike trade show, also at the ball park, and sponsored by Flat Tire Beer. I plan to ride by for supper on the way home, and will be the guy in the fluorescent hi-vis jersey and vintage blue & yellow Bikesellers shorts.

Tomorrow night after the ride, there's Arkansas's first cycling fashion show over across the river at the River Market, which promises to be a pretty good deal and feminine-oriented, since few of the local male riders wanted to volunteer as models...

Parking may be tight Saturday morning, I plan to park the truck down under the I-30 bridge by the submarine, and ride over to the start line from there. Distance is rather flexible at the time, depends on how far I can convince the little sister to hang in there.

Ol' Number 777

[Aggie_Ama]

I had a great ride! Will have to post a full report after we go back to Texas. We met a lot of friendly people and made great time. I felt for all the people who were telling us they didn't realize the 75 miler was actually 87. :eek: How was everyone else's ride?

[Tuckervill]

Yes, my husband's 25 mile ride was 31! He wasn't ready for the 25, but he did all 31. And then, my 50 was barely 50. :P (50 by the time we rode to the start and rode back to the car from the finish.) To miss the 75 by TWELVE miles?? Wow.

I flatted at mile 21. Hit something in the road. It was somewhere near that gross dead rottweiler. :( Unfortunately, I remembered at that moment that I had forgotten to get the spare tube out of my Camelbak back in the car. :( :( Lots of people offered help, and THANKS to the gal who just threw a tube out to me, if you're listening. And THANKS to the young man driving his car who just happened to have a floor pump in his trunk! :) :) (I thought about putting the frame pump from the mountain bikes on one of our bikes, but I didn't.)

It's really disheartening to have the SAG pull up just as you're pulling away from changing your flat, only to hear him say, "I can't let you get behind me" Aw heck, that means we're last!! But we pushed on to the rest stop and were able to ride back amongst others who did longer distances.

My son did the 50 on his John Deere Racer. You would not BELIEVE the number of comments he got about his bike! :) He was so proud of it. He had not trained at all (but he's almost 14--they don't know any better). He had a psycho problem at around mile 40, but I talked him through it. I'm really proud of him.

I met Hub/Patricia by accident somewhere before the BDB. Pat, I never saw you again after that rest stop. How'd you do?

My average was much better than the ride I did in Maine on the 15th, so I'm happy! I'm looking forward to hearing your ride report, Amanda!

Karen

[Hub]

Boy doggie! it was great! I ended up with 35 miles, (a personal best) technically it was the 25, but we parked a mile or so from the start and then psyclepath knows lots of long-cuts.

I had to walk a few times, but that's okay- hey, I got up at 2:45 to drive 200 miles to wear spandex in front of strangers- I have no shame.

It was a treat to meet Tuckerville, tuckerville Jr. & Mr. tuckerville . . .

It was one of the top ten coolest things I've ever done- next on my list is the 30 miler in Helena Ark, crossing the Mississippi River bridge at the end of this month. . . .

[PscyclePath]

I had a great ride! Will have to post a full report after we go back to Texas. We met a lot of friendly people and made great time. I felt for all the people who were telling us they didn't realize the 75 miler was actually 87. :eek: How was everyone else's ride?

I logged into BikeJournal.com this morning, and found that we were tied in the overall standings, at # 1403 and 1404 respectively!

They tampered a little bit with the locations of the rest stops and turn-around points this year, so the distances weren't quite as advertised. If you did the "12 mile" route, my FlightDeck usually reads a little over 14 miles on that course. The 25 miler was actually about 33, and I rolled up some extra riding to and from the start/finish areas and doubling back to look for dropped riders.

I spent most of my time in the back of the pack... Saw a lot of folks back there riding without helmets. Some in baseball or cycling caps, one kid on an MTB came storming up to the top of the BD Bridge bare-headed. This is getting to be a common habit out here on the RiverTrail, with a lot of the club riders (who ought to know better) riding around like that :eek:

Vehicle traffic out on Maumelle Boulevard was sort of nasty, especially on the return leg. Hopefully we can re-route this for next year.

Overall, I had a great time. One of these days I hope to ride the whole route on event day, but may try out the volunteer/support end as well... This is one of those rides that gets a little better and a little bigger each year.

Ol' Number 777

[Tuckervill]

Yeah, I thought helmets were REQUIRED but I saw 5 or 6 at least without them. I thought someone would be watching and pull them from the course.

I kind of liked the route, but I heard someone complain about going through downtown Conway on the 100.

Does it seem to you that Little Rock just barely supports this ride, and NLR has really stepped up to the plate?

Glad you did a PB, Pat! I saw the Tour Da Delta posters...maybe I'll try it, too.
I'll let you know if I do.

Karen

[Aggie_Ama]

I logged into BikeJournal.com this morning, and found that we were tied in the overall standings, at # 1403 and 1404 respectively!

They tampered a little bit with the locations of the rest stops and turn-around points this year, so the distances weren't quite as advertised. If you did the "12 mile" route, my FlightDeck usually reads a little over 14 miles on that course. The 25 miler was actually about 33, and I rolled up some extra riding to and from the start/finish areas and doubling back to look for dropped riders.



I better go get some miles tonight- can't have that tie last. :p I know about those rest stops being a little off, I hit "the wall" at 80 miles and was desperate for the next rest stop. I was losing faith when it popped up 2 miles farther down the road. But that is the only negative thing I can say about the ride. ;)

Tuckerville- I am glad you and DS had a great time. I wish I had seen you and Hub and the John Deere Bike. I personally didn't have any problem with going through Conway. The residents were accomodating when we rolled in and there was plenty of police.

I got a compliment on the Amici Veloci Jersey and one on my bike. I am such a sucker for compliments on my bike.

[Tuckervill]

Hey, Tom, do you mean they posted the results on Bikejournal.com? How do you find it?

Karen

[Tuckervill]

By the way, here are our pictures. The first one is of us at the start. My son Will, me, and my husband Charles. Does my helmet look too small or something? I never noticed it riding up so high before. Maybe I just hadn't pushed it down, yet.

The second one is of my son hugging his bike that he rebuilt himself and that got him through what was for him a long challenging ride.

We had a blast, though. When we were driving back to the hotel I kept thinking, "I can't believe it's over". But honestly I don't feel like I built it up too much. hmmm.

Karen

[PscyclePath]

Hey, Tom, do you mean they posted the results on Bikejournal.com? How do you find it?


BikeJournal simply keeps track of your total mileage for the year, and when you log on at the home page, it shows you where you stand mileage-wise compared to all the other members. You can do the same thing within your bike club on the club pages, it shows you where you stand compared to everybody else in the group, and totals miles for the members so that clubs can enter a little friendly competition as well. I log my miles under the Arkansas Bicycling Club, but the TE ladies have their own group there as well where they can roll up their miles. (Apparently you can only log your miles to one particular club, to prevent double-dipping by folks who belong to more than one group.)

I check the little list when I log on there, and was quite surprised to see a familiar handle just above mine ;-)

And yes, the ride rules required helmet use, since the event insurance policy (through the League of American Bicyclists) requires helmets as a condition of coverage. Arkansas, though, doesn't require the use of bike helmets for riders of any age, and lots of folks here run the risk.

Neat pictures, and I've admired that green bike for a long time ;-)

Y'all be careful out there...

[Tuckervill]

Oooooh! I thought you were saying that you finished 1403 in the BDB! Which would not be very good, would it? lol.

Yeah, I sometimes remember to log my miles at BJ. eh.

Karen

[Tuckervill]

Oh, and Will would have been in his Razorback jersey, but it got stolen in Detroit. :mad: A guy parked his car next to ours at the BDB and he was wearing the same jersey. I asked him if he'd been to Detroit lately. ;)

Will saw the Hog jerseys for sale in the ballpark, but we had already replaced it with something else and--he's such a good kid--he said he didn't want me to spend the money on it. Parkside Bike shop had Hog socks there in ****ey-Stephens, so he got those instead.

We do wish we'd picked up the John Deere jersey we saw last year, though.

Karen

[Hub]

Yeah, I noticed the JD bike several times (and the rest of your party) before I realizied who y'all were. I'm sorry I didn't hook up with y'all again, after I hiked to the top of the bridge- I had to walk a little in a few places- but I have no shame. At least I rode further this year and walked a WHOLE lot less. I also avoided 2 opportunites to crash. Saturday was a top ten day for me!